Sister Crystals!

  Somehow I made it into a packed Whistler to see Sister Crystals on Monday 13th January. There was a line outside and everything. It don't take much to pack that place. Its a bloody closet to begin with. The pictures I post here will be of the two times I saw them. They have a new self titled LP. I was too broke at the time to buy it off them at the time. That will have to wait. I think I saw most of their set. Still these moments feel brief, and as fleeting as they are I get consistent vibes that remind me of the heady sweetness of John Lennon.  At first this seemed like two random thoughts colliding, and have nothing to do with each other.  There is just something intangible I get from listening to SC that reminds me of post-Beatles Lennon. Perhaps I should explain. To me John Lennon sweetness is not over the top, not too intense that it hurts your teeth. Its moderate, mysterious and cool...of course. It will not give everything at once. And you feel instantaneously a long term relationship, like not only is it there now, but always. There is something held back to discover later, a closed book left behind.  This is how I identify the vibes I get from hearing the Crystals. As many times as they played. I only have seen them twice including this Whistler show, but always a song of theirs circles around. I have their previous work under their old name Magic City. It isn't just Lauren Whitacre's voice, also Colin Croom....well I assume that was him. They only have two members on their Face Book but there were at least three guitars on the Whistler stage. Normally that invites a fog, a wall of sound, but there was enough space between the instruments for me to see how each functioned. I cannot help but tether them slightly to the local Chicago shoegaze culture. Its how I found out about them at a Panda Riot show, and its part of the signature vibe I get from them. Of course just because they played in the same space alone does not make them 'gazers. Yet it is the road that lead me to them. There is just something about this band's music that will have me listening for a long time. Perhaps its completely subjective how they remind me somewhat of John Lennon, particularly my childhood memories of discovering him as older relatives listened to him. Not a lot of music puts me in that spot.
Zig